(Geneva) The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO), struggling for two years with COVID-19, on Wednesday launched a negotiation process for an international agreement, and possibly a future treated, to better fight pandemics.
The decision was adopted by consensus after three days of an exceptional meeting of the World Health Assembly, WHO’s highest decision-making body that brings together all of its members.
“The adoption of this decision is a cause for celebration and hope,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The management of COVID-19 has shown the limits of what the WHO has the right and the means to do.
The text was proposed by dozens of countries, including those of the European Union and the United States.
Although not on the list of countries that submitted the text, China expressed during the discussions its willingness to negotiate an agreement, without specifying whether it should be binding or not.
“We must transform our global health architecture, so that the international community can respond to future pandemics collectively, effectively and immediately,” reacted EU Ambassador Lotte Knudsen after the adoption of the text.
The United States, in a statement sent by its mission in Geneva, called on countries to “work together to advance health security and make the global health system stronger and more responsive.”
The countries had already informally agreed on the document on Sunday.
From now on, the members of the WHO will have to work on the development of this legal framework and decide whether this international instrument will be binding – like a treaty – or not. Some countries, including the United States, have already expressed their reluctance to the idea of a binding instrument.
” The road is long ”
The proposal for an “international treaty on pandemics” – supported by Dr Tedros – was presented at the end of March in a forum signed by the leaders of countries spread over five continents, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and South African presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Chilean Sebastian Pinera.
“Of course, there is still a long way to go,” Dr Tedros, “There are still differences of opinion on what could or should contain a new agreement”.
The draft agreement initially provides for the creation of “an intergovernmental body” to draft and negotiate “a convention, agreement or other WHO international instrument on prevention, preparedness and response. in the face of pandemics ”.
An interim report is expected in May 2023, followed by conclusions in May 2024.
Since the appearance of the first cases of COVID-19, the WHO has repeatedly denounced the lack of sharing of samples and data on the first cases of COVID-19, and it is helplessly witnessing inequalities in access to vaccines between rich and poor countries.
For many, the future international instrument on pandemics should make it possible to strengthen the WHO, both in terms of its funding and its capacities for action.
“One of the expectations vis-à-vis this treaty is to be able to improve the capacity of the WHO to monitor and assess the situation in countries: the investigative power of the WHO”, told AFP a French diplomatic source.
It would make it possible “to obtain significant progress on strengthening equitable access to health products, but also to have health systems that could be strengthened to constitute an effective first line of defense against pandemics”.
The head of the WHO has also called in recent months for the establishment of a collective inter-state assessment system, such as exists at the UN in the area of human rights.